Senators GM Steve Staios participated in a question-and-answer session with season ticket holders earlier this week, giving him an opportunity to speak about several topics about his team.

One of the notable ones was the state of extension talks with veteran winger Drake Batherson.  Late last month, it was reported that the two sides were not particularly close on a new agreement with it being suggested that he should pass the $10MM per season mark on his next deal.  When asked about the state of talks, Staios noted (via Postmedia’s Callum Fraser):

There’s no secret that we want to get Drake Batherson signed. That conversation is ongoing with Drake, and it takes two sides to come to a deal. But there’s been good dialog as we move forward.

He’s a homegrown talent. It’s a great story. He continues to get better and we feel like we have a very great, strong, contending team with a chance to win. We want him to be a part of it.

Batherson is coming off another career year offensively, one that saw him collect 33 goals and 38 assists in 79 games while averaging a point per game in their first-round sweep by Carolina.  The 28-year-old has consistently provided slow but steady improvement on his offensive numbers to the point where he is now a top-line performer.  That makes him quite a bargain at his current $4.975MM price tag.  While extending him will reset Ottawa’s salary scale (Tim Stutzle is their highest-paid player currently at $8.35MM per season), it seems like something they’re going to need to do if they want to keep Batherson in the fold.

Meanwhile, one of the other questions was about the state of the roster following the Brady Tkachuk trade to Florida before the draft.  Staios noted that they were able to flip one of the picks for William Eklund to bring in a capable top-six replacement while adding that he’s “certainly not done” when it comes to building his roster.

At the moment, Ottawa has a little over $4MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, with no remaining free agents needing to be re-signed.  That gives Staios a fair amount of flexibility to try to add one of the veterans still on the open market or a chance to bank some early cap room with the idea of making a splash on the trade front in-season.  It may take some time for that addition to come but the Sens are poised to add at some point.

Meanwhile, Staios was asked about some under-the-radar candidates who could break camp with Ottawa.  The GM indicated (via Hockey HotStove’s Murray Pam) that wingers Sammy Blais and Philip Tomasino both have an opportunity to make the NHL roster.

Blais spent the first half of last season in the NHL, bouncing between Montreal and Toronto via waivers.  He was reasonably productive, picking up eight points in 21 games before eventually clearing waivers and finishing in the minors in Laval.  Tomasino, meanwhile, was playing somewhat regularly in the NHL as recently as the 2024-25 season when he played in 61 games.  However, he played in just nine games with Pittsburgh last year, spending the rest of an injury-riddled year with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he had 15 points in 14 games.  Blais signed a two-year deal in July while Tomasino inked a one-year pact.